January 2004 Archives

I just came back from a leadership retreat that went very well. It went well because it was run Texas style, which is always the best way to do anything. Texas style retreats have a lot of activities, focus on spiritual growth and everybody gathers in circles and sings praise and worship music. You stay up all night, talking about any number of things, then, you wake up early and go to mass where the first thing you eat is Jesus. Yeehaww! The most amazing thing was that this retreat was held at St. John's.

Anyway, I'm sorry I haven't written in a week, but I really have not been in the mood for writing. I will try to get back into the swing of things so as not to break my new years resolution.

Oh! Fr. Mitch Pacwa of EWTN is coming to speak at St. John's. He's awesome, and if anybody is in the vicinity of St. John the Baptist, or is willing to make a trip to Oklahoma to hear him speak, please do. Tickets are a bit pricey, but I gaurantee that it will be worth it. Plus, you'll be helping the Catholic Student Center raise money for a new and bigger center to draw in more young Oklahoma Catholics. If you want, you can come visit me and see me in the kitchen making the dinners for the benefactors.

Good things happening at St. John's. Miracles do happen.

The Sibleys:

I'm not going to ask anybody to nominate me for anything. I know there are plenty of blogs that are five thousand times better than mine. While I enjoy recieving awards, I always thought it was in bad taste to ask people to nominate you. It's like trying to invite yourself to a party. It's just not polite. If you really and truly feel that this blog is worth one of those statues, by all means, nominate me. But, I'm not going to nominate this or the other blog I write for. Especially not Eternal Rebels, because we have not written anything in forever. We're making a resolution to write something every day starting february, but I'm not going to nominate any of my own blogs.

This of course is not an attack on any prominent blogs which nominate themselves *cough*Markshea*cough*. There are blogs out there that are so good they have earned the right to nominate themselves. However, I don't think I can consider myself in those ranks.

Congratulations:

To Jay of Discernment Group blog. He has been accepted to the Dominicans. Drop by and give him props.

Finally, congratulations to the happy couple I saw preparing for their wedding before I left St. John's for home and a nap.

I was reading Fr. Bryce Sibley's blog, A Saintly Salmagundi, and noticed one of the regular posters was from Oklahoma. His name is Fr. Shane Tharp. I looked him up, and realized this was the same priest who spoke at the college conference in Stillwater. He gave a really excellent lesson on the first 500 years of the Church. I took copious notes, but unfortunately forgot to take them home. He is an interesting man, and I imagine his homilies are fascinating. You can read about him here by scrolling down to his name.

Forgive me for not writing, I've had a busy weekend. My mother took a sudden trip to Texas to go visit my grandmother. I didn't have any warning, so I decided I was unprepared to go. I stayed home with my father. We've both been pretty busy trying to make sure the house was cleaned up when mom got home. I've been pretty exhausted and haven't been able to get around to posting.

Victor finally created my blogtone. It's everything I expected, and was well worth the wait. It's reminescent of the opening notes of "In The Stone" by Earth, Wind and Fire, perhaps one of EWF's greatest and most underated songs. I'll get around to installing it.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one playing around with templates last night. While I was working on the EternalRebels template, RC was working on mine. I don't know what to think about it, but I'll keep it for now. Thanks RC.

I really do hate this template. RC can tell you it's been a headache from the start, and the results of his effort were hardly worth it. This post box is too small, it's difficult to alter, and I still can't get the colors of the comment boxes and archives to match this template. It sucks.

The whole point of this design was so St. Anthony could always stay on top of the page while people read it. Originally, St. Anthony was really big so he could hide any ads that blogger was putting there. I wanted the new blog to be brighter. The last one was dark brown or purple (nobody could tell) with yellow text. It looked nice, but it was dark. I like what Liz did to the same picture of St. Anthony to brighten him up. I like the way he looks. It's very spiffy. I just hate that this blog is so restrictive.

I'm looking for a new template. Preferably made by somebody who knows something about CSS and Movable Type. All I want is:

1. A big picture of St. Anthony. Actually, THIS big picture of St. Anthony. I love this painting of him, and if you email me to volunteer to make me a new template, I will gladly send you the 282 x 402 image so you can mess around with it on paintshop and alter it to your design.
2. A less restrictive posting space. I want to post big pictures and quiz results with big graphics.
3. The colors must be light, but there must be a theme of franciscan brown running through it. browns oranges and yellows are acceptable. I think, however, I'd like to keep the main color white, as it is now.
4. The scrollbars should match the color of the blog. It's a detail I like.
5. The comment box and archives must match the colors of the blog.
6. It should have link buttons, like this blog does. They look something like this and they should have the same approximate dementions. These are for people to have a graphic that can be associated with my blog.

Liz designed these buttons. She focused on the hands. The buttons elise made focused on St. Anthony's face. I liked elise's better.

6. The blog designer must be willing to do this out of the kindness of his or her own heart because I am DIRT poor.

I'll talk to my usual friends, but if anybody wants to help me, I'm listening. I think, that I may take this template down, and put in a standard movable type template until I can get a new design. I wish I wasn't so poor and computer illiterate.

I finally decided to work on my links. I'd like to talk to RC about making the stuff on the side scroll as well. Plus, the original CSS code for this blog had the scrollbars match colors with the rest of the blog. They were white with an orange shadow. I've tried putting the code in with no success. Also, the comment boards and archives still are not in a consistent color scheme with the rest of this blog. It is too bad I'm illiterate with CSS.

Anyway, being that I am the first person ever to ask stblogs.org for blog space, let me be the last to welcome the Summa Mamas. I gaurantee blogging here will be exciting.

On another good note, my article is going to be published at Onerock. Be sure to read it when it comes out.

I still need a title. Any help would be appreciated. Also, prayers that it be published would also be helpful.

When my father and I taught three-year olds catechism at my parish, I wondered how we would tell the story of Jesus’ death on the cross when, only a few months earlier, we had been talking about his birth. For several months, we had been telling the children that Jesus was God and man, without sin. We told the children that He loved us. I remember how quiet the room became when my father showed the children the crucifix. He told them how Jesus died for our sins. The question that stood out the most was, “Why?”. These little ones could sense that this cross was terribly wrong. Why should a good man like Jesus die? The answer of course, is that he accepted death so we wouldn’t perish. We explained that to the children. However, as I see those same students grow, I know that the same question will be applied to their own suffering. It will be a question that they’ll seek an answer to for many years to come. Why do I have to suffer? Why do good people suffer and die while the wicked prosper? How do I respond to suffering? Universally, people suffer physically, mentally or spiritually. They respond to this suffering in various ways. A Catholic, who loves being Catholic, will do something totally different from conventional wisdom. Instead of trying to avoid the suffering by drowning it out with various worldly distractions, he will embrace suffering as an opportunity to become holy. The ‘Why’ of suffering finds an answer in the words of St. Paul. “Now, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church,” (Cor 1:24, RSV)

I cantored at the vigil mass today. There were plenty of unexpected surprises because I hadn't attended the rehearsal the previous Thursday. Marie had to rush around teach me everything that was going on. We had some sort of blessing on a person coming into the church which required additional singing. I was a bit nervous, but everything pretty much went off without a hitch. Compliments aplenty, but I still hate singing in Vox Dei.

I was joking to Mike that I wanted to marry a supermodel. I then dismissed the idea because supermodels seem too high maintenance. Mike then responded, "The Church is a super model, a super model of a relationship with Christ".

I'm writing a new article for onerock that will come out on Ash Wednesday. It's on suffering. I recommend to anybody who's ever contemplated suffering Salvifici Doloris by his holiness John Paul II. It is truly beautiful.

Tried getting back into Rose State again. I need an original from UNT, but they're holding out because I'm in debt. I tried asking for my original from the University of Central Oklahoma, but they had already shredded it. Looks like I won't be in college this spring. Please pray that I can get back into college ASAP or at least use this time to figure out what God's calling me to do. I'm almost tempted to drop out so I can pay my debts to college off and just enter seminary. At the very least, I wouldn't be in debt...

Looks like another boring spring. I guess I'll go pound the pavement today looking for work. St. Anthony, pray for me.

I had never heard of blessing chalk and marking your doorways for the epiphany until last night. We recieved chalk at mass. Now, the doors of all family members are marked with 20+G+M+B+04. I found this bit of info on this tradition on the net. Has anybody else heard of this?

That, children, is more than just bread. It is the living God. People have died for it. The world mocks us for our belief in it. When you say, "Amen" you promise that you believe in God's presence there so much that you'd die for it. Look at God in his most awesome presence. How is it that we recieve God like this and don't die from the awesome power? It is only through his great mercy that we can do so. Thank the Lord for his great mercy, for his humility, for his love. Love him, my little brothers and sisters because the Eucharist shows that you can not match His love.

Despair is when Satan has lied to you and told you that there is no hope. Even at your lowest point, if you have Christ in your heart, Satan can never make a Christian despair. His hope is in Christ and he knows that not even death can stop him.